Tour of Friendship | Day 3

todays stage uproots from Ayyuthya and heads out towards the more rural Nakon Nayok. An advertised 103km (115km in reality) mostly flat with a 3km climb up Thailands biggest dam at the end. With Pierre in yellow and all the other main contenders 2 minutes back, it promises to be a day of attacks and hard work for the team. the Open team tried to control the front of the race for first 20km. This proved impossible with people attacking across all 4 lanes of the highway. Realising the futility, PA took matters into his own hands and set off on a break with Bastian Mav and a couple of others. A while later a 2nd break including Takei and Direct Asia Dave christenson tried to bridge over. The rest of the DA team then massed at the front and we set the pace for the following 65km to prevent more getting away. the juniors had some action and the 4 Malaysians attacked Nate. He went with them and endured some heat for (rightly) not working with them. We absorbed them back into the pack about 20km later.

We continued to control the pack all the way to the climb – with only a brief touch of wheels from Raoul and Pete upsetting things 5km out. Pierre took 3rd on the stage – losing about 15 seconds to Takei and Bastian. DA Dave Christenson came 4th. Two on the podium and Pierre still in yellow = good day! In 50s, Steven Wong came in around 5th. Bill top 10 also. Nico stuck with 40s pack and came in around20th after dropping a bit on the hill. Good roads today and great riding. This is more like the ToF we love